Hello Giving Black Family!

When I learned about the work of Dr. Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome—Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College, New York, and Co-Founder of Black Philanthropy Month—I knew we had to speak!

Dr. Okome, a fellow Nigerian, is both an academic and a powerful advocate for pan-Africanism. In this episode of The Giving Black Podcast, she and I explore the importance of a united global call to action around Black philanthropy in its many forms, traditions, and practices.

She highlights the significance and similarity of traditional acts of philanthropy in Black communities around the world: tithing to religious institutions, the history of rent parties that supported community members unable to pay rent, and the breadth of radical generosity, Ajo and SuSu, Pardner, a variety of rotational credit systems in Black communities—much of which goes unnoticed and unrecorded.

Giving Black family, it’s not often we are blessed with such deep academic insight into Black philanthropy. This is a rich, contextual, and flavourful conversation about what philanthropy looks like from a continental, multi-generational, diasporic, and a contemporary African migratory perspective—all of which combine into a wonderful recognition of the unifying power of Sankofa: a principle that binds all Black people together despite the distance of time and space.

Dr. Okome is, in one word, amazing. I am proud to have hosted her—not only did I learn new dimensions of Black philanthropy, but I also gained a new friend and elder in this important movement of generostiy.

You can connect with Dr. Okome via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mojubaolu

Philanthropy Is The Heartbeat Of The World!

#blackphilanthropymonth #givingblack #backblack